Small to medium agaric, growing on the ground or on wood or litter, with a white spore print. Pileus red, pink or purple, rarely brownish, not viscid. Lamellae adnexed, adnate, sinuate or notched or subdecurrent. Stipe central. Partial veil remnants absent. Spores hyaline, amyloid or non-amyloid, smooth; germ pore absent. Cheilocystidia present, and usually also pleurocystidia. Lamellar trama regular. Pileipellis a cutis; usually composed of smooth hyphae (rarely nodulose). Clamp connections present.

Most other Mycena species have nodulose pileipellis hyphae. Agarics with a pinkish to purple pileus can be found among the waxcaps such as Humidicutis and Hygrocybe (which do not grow on wood, have non-amyloid spores and lack pleurocystidia) and in Laccaria (which has spinose non-amyloid spores).

Mycena section Calodontes (Fr. ex Berk.) Quél., Mém. Soc. Émul. Montbéliard, sér. 2, 5 [Champ. Jura Vosges 1]: 102 (1872).

Four species: Mycena clarkeana, M. nullawarensis, M. subcorticalis and M. vinacea. There are also records under the Northern Hemisphere M. pura.

Mycena section Calodontes is keyed out separately because the pinkish to purple fruit-bodies are comparatively robust compared to other Mycena (the stipe is up to 5 mm diam.) and pileipellis hyphae are almost always smooth (rather than nodulose).

W.A., S.A., Qld, N.S.W., Vic. and Tas. (and probably also N.T.).

In native forests and in pine plantations, occasionally in parks and gardens.

On wood or litter.

Saprotrophic.

Bougher, N.L. (2009a), Fungi of the Perth region and beyond: a self-managed field book, Western Australian Naturalists' Club (Inc.), Perth. [Description and Illustration of M. clarkeana]

Bougher, N.L. & Syme, K. (1998), Fungi of Southern Australia. University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of M. pura]

Fuhrer, B. (2005), A Field Guide to Australian Fungi. Bloomings Books, Hawthorn. [Description and Illustration of M. clarkeana, M. pura and M. vinacea]

Grgurinovic, C.A. (1997a), Larger Fungi of South Australia. The Botanic Gardens of Adelaide and State Herbarium and The Flora and Fauna of South Australia Handbooks Committee, Adelaide. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of M. clarkeana and M. vinacea]

Grgurinovic, C.A. (2003), The genus Mycena in south-eastern Australia. Fungal Diversity Press, Hong Kong and Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. [Key to and Description and Microcharacters of the four Australian species, along with Illustration of M. clarkeana and M. vinacea, and B&W Illustration of M. nullawarensis]

McCann, I.R. (2003), Australian Fungi Illustrated. Macdown Productions, Vermont. [Illustration of M. clarkeana and M. vinacea]